Don’t plan on taking a trip to national public land sites, like the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in Tinicum, anytime soon.

As long as there is a federal government shutdown in place, public lands like the refuge in Tinicum are not open to the public. Congress failed to avoid a federal government shutdown for the first time in 17 years on Monday night.

“We are closed due to a lapse of appropriated funding,” said refuge Manager Gary Stolz Tuesday.

Stolz said the only people who are permitted on the refuge site during the shutdown are law enforcement officials. He said 10 employees work at the refuge.

The major sticking point over this latest continuing resolution in Washington, D.C., was the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., supported tea party efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act in the Senate; U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., opposed them.

In the House, U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan, R-7, of Upper Darby, had voted in favor of defunding the health care law; U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, D-1, of Philadelphia, opposed it.

Meehan changed his tune on Tuesday.

“I came to Washington to fix government, not shut it down,” he said a prepared statement. “At this point, I believe it’s time for the House to vote for a clean, short-term funding bill to bring the Senate to the table and negotiate a responsible compromise.”

Officials at some organizations that provide social services to residents in Delaware County were trying to determine the effects of the shutdown Tuesday.

Alan Edelstein, executive director for the Media-based Family and Community Service of Delaware County, said he received a message from a woman in the AIDs coordinating office at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, who relayed that federal HIV case management dollars will not be compromised during the shutdown. Edelstein said he was unsure Tuesday what will happen to federal funds for other programs administered by his organization. He said it has been difficult for his agency and other social service agencies in recent months due to the federal cuts related to the budget and sequestration.

Carol Goertzel, president and chief executive officer at the Ridley Township-based PathWays PA, said there is a group of about six or seven young adults involved with the Volunteer and In Service to America program that likely will be affected by the federal government shutdown. She said the young adults in this program live frugally while helping out the community for a year after graduation. Goertzel said her organization plans to loan money to the program members until she gets more of a sense of what will happen during the shutdown.

Goertzel said there are also concerns about what will happen to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Women Infants and Children nutrition program.

“We’re also hearing from moms who are very concerned about WIC because they depend on that program to purchase milk and food for their babies,” she said.

There are concerns among unemployment compensation recipients, according to Goertzel.

“Depending on how long this goes on, unemployment might run out of funds as well and people rely on that to pay their rent and support their families while they are looking for a job,” she said.

Goertzel called on state officials to discuss a contingency plan during this shutdown.

“We are reviewing program by program, department by department and funding line by funding line,” said Jay Pagni, a spokesman for Gov. Tom Corbett, Tuesday.

Pagni said the governor has directed agencies to work with their federal counterparts to determine what the effects will be during the federal government closure. He said that health care assistance and vital public safety programs will continue to be delivered during the shutdown.

T.J. Rooney, president & managing member at Rippon Associates LLC and co-chairman of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Campaign to Fix the Debt, called the shutdown shameful and said it was avoidable. Rooney, a former chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, called on members of Congress to figure out a solution to the shutdown and then focus on raising the debt ceiling later this month.

Head Start programs for at-risk children in some areas of the country are threatened by this shutdown.

Adriene Irving, director of legislative and community services at the Delaware County Intermediate Unit, said there will not be any technical support from the Head Start Region III office during the shutdown “but we can still draw from the grant so daily operations aren’t impacted,” she said.